svensson

Yeah, I can really appreciate this. My wife is an artist and art-apprciater, and has explained to me the issues about this. And writers of my acquaintance have told me that we're VERY close to AI created novels... and the combination of the two [art and writing] is just terrifying. The whole point of art isn't just to illustrate, but to augment those who experience it... to challenge preconceived notions, to expand perceptions, and to offer ideas in addition to informing and entertaining. Without the human element in the creation of art [ALL art], we'd be left with some bland 1984/Farenheit 451 'beige reality' where original thought and individual experience is devalued and diluted.

@Shiningbrow I'm thrilled to see an RQ game in actual working development. And yes, the Rhino Rider in my heart loves seeing action in Prax. But you're right, I'm REALLY hoping this isn't some looter-shooter Borderlands /Destiny /League of Legends clone. The whole idea of an RQ game that doesn't deal with RQ themes is a complete non-starter for me. Don't get me wrong, if you're into that kind of game, do your thing. Just don't put an RQ name on it. What I want in any so-called 'RPG' title: - Deep character building - More than one way to meet goals [combat, magic, stealth, negotiation, whatever] - Open World - Single player, co-op strictly optional - No. Fucking. Microtransactions. DO NOT try and sell me 'Assassin's Creed: Dragon Pass'. That would be an insult to every single designer and player who has shepherded Greg's vision. What I want in an RQ game: - The Runes to matter as much as they do on paper. - RQ themes... Cattle raids, the Lunar Occupation, etc. - Your cult to matter as much as your tribe. - Making Rune Level to be real work - HEROQUESTS! And anything less than that will be DnD with the serial number filed off. Don't get me wrong here... I too am looking forward to BG3 [August 23 release date]. But I want a RuneQuest game... In a perfect world, I want a game that is as gorgeous and open as Skyrim... with a deeper story, more RuneQuest elements, and a sense of achievement when you're done.

As I imagine an Orlanthi tribe, a 'thane' is both a warrior of the tribal 'crown' whose upkeep is the responsibility of chief or king/queen through a landhold, a salary, or combination of the two. However, comma, but, it is entirely possible to be a warrior of a temple whose upkeep comes from temple lands and who is rated as a thane for purposes of status, prestige and ransom. Many Babeester Gor worshipers could rate such a position, if devoted and skilled enough. The difference is that the thanes are at the beck and call of the clan, while the guards are solely responsible to the temple clergy.

I'd like to see some Sea pantheon Mythology. For example, the destruction of the Spike is likely to be even more catastrophic for Sea peoples as it was for landbound races, so how does Magasta's Children view it? Then there's all the practical stuff: - Sailor Profession - Net combat - Ship types /Maritime technology - Making a living from the sea [oceanic trade goods where magic is reliable would be interesting] - Naval warfare at the fleet, ship, and personal level; For example, do some Gloranthan ships carry siege weaponry [ballistae, etc.], if so whose? - As @metcalph said, some paragraphs about the Sea races beyond the Ludoch [who are relatively familiar] I'd like to see something like the Baran the Monster Killer chapter of Strangers in Prax, where it discusses how landsmen see sailors and how sailors see lubbers and the culture of the sea.

That's one of major problems with HQ as a system. It treats items, status, reputation, and everything else peripheral to a character the precise same way it treats the character's Strength characteristic. It's just glosses over too much reality for the sake of telling the story. In HQ, everything is a handwave. It's one of the reasons why I much prefer RQ to HQ. Items are possessions... they can be picked up and put down. They can be stolen. Your cult could demand possession of it, something I could legitimately see with an item like the Lawstaff. Any Knowledge Temple who knows of it would want it, working or not, as a holy relic. I get that some cult relics will have user restrictions on them, but the mere possession of such an item as a focus of worship is the kind of thing that could propel a relatively minor Knowledge Temple like the one in Pavis to a MUCH more prominent and credible position. And that credibility brings in pilgrims. And pilgrims bring in cash, donations, and power. It was true in the Middle Ages and it's true in Glorantha. The same is true for items like the Windsword or the Yelmalion Everburning Torches that contain their god's very blood! And let's face it, if any cult in Glorantha were to measure a worshipers worth based on whether or not an adventuring cultist 'donated' a high prestige relic, it would definitely be Yelmalio. In any event, I see an inherent ability [like Kallyr's Star on her brow or Sarostip's Eye Bite] as being more powerful than just the possession of an item.

Yeah, I don't want to get too 'Game of Thrones' with it... They don't call them the Dark Ages for nothing, but there's a difference between acknowledging that the brutality existed and reveling in it. There's no need to get all 'gore-porn' outside of combat. Kate Hepburn will always be my older, angrier Eleanor of Aquitane, but I'm somewhat sore put to think of someone I'd cast as younger woman who stole Henry II's heart. Strong-willed and intelligent, certainly, but it's difficult for women in Western movie making to come across as strong willed and intelligent without being written as embittered bitch. It's a serious flaw in Western story-telling that we all got from the Ancient Greek tragedies.

Looking forward to the finished product, Ian!

@Brian Duguid Insofar as the Hsunchen Pralori example, I was looking for a Hsunchen people who would a] have access to the Hunter Transform spells, b] were different from Odayla, who does have the Transform spells and are familiar to a Sartarite, and c] were far enough away from Sartar to be 'foreign'. Remember that Pralori don't know the Stranger's Greeting and are not culturally Orlanthi. Sartarites have enough experience with smiling faces with deceit in their hearts from Lunar missionaries and are quite defensive in this era [ca. 1625 ST]. Telmori are more familiar to them, but are also not Orlanthi and are cursed by Chaos. Heort was a good Orlanthi Hero and was many generations descended from Doe Woman and the Elk Clan of Sartar is understood to be a Hunter-worshiping clan and their transformations are identifiable as 'culturally Orlanthi'. From where the average farming carl is standing, a stranger Pralori may very well be lycanthropes until proven otherwise. This is why I think RQG players and referees need a list of labels and criteria to answer simple questions like 'What is the definition of lycanthropy in Glorantha?' and 'Is lycanthropy tied to the Chaos Rune?'.

Let this one bake your noodle.... Tusk rider were-boar. THAT would seriously throw a wrench in the PC's program...

Boxers are the 'orange cat' of the canine world. Prove me wrong.

So, in our discussion of Hunter cult spells, we also talked about the various Hunter cult 'animal shape' spells of attack form, protection form, and the collective spell of Transform. To an outside observer, it's very, VERY easy to confuse a Rune spell use with a Telmori transformation. This leads to a whole bunch of misunderstanding and prejudice. A Sartarite seeing a Pralori transform into an elk might legitimately think "WTF?! WERE-DEER???" I think we have to define what 'lycanthropy' is for Hsunchen beast-cult societies. The way I personally define it is this: "Are they afflicted with the benefits and deficits of classic lycanthropy?" To whit: - Uncontrolled shape changing - Immunity /resistance to 'normal' weaponry - Inordinate vulnerability to certain Rune metals. - And the loss of Human intelligence and memory for the duration of the transformation. Now, something that needs to be said here is that @Scotty specifically stated in the Hunter cult spells discussion that the various Hsunchen or Hunter cult Transform spells are NOT 'lycanthropy', the recipients of those spells do NOT have protection from normal weaponry or susceptibility to Rune metals, and that they retain their human intelligence [including the ability to cast spells]. We all ran into a similar situation earlier this year talking about the RQ definition of 'undead' being significantly different than the 'normal' [aka d20] definition. Ghosts and spirits, for example, are NOT 'undead' as Humakti define the term.

Second comment.... Something else to remember is that RuneQuest generally and Glorantha specifically don't have a tier system for races such as is found in d20 systems. There is no kobold < goblin/halfling/gnome < orc/human/elf/dwarf < hobgoblin < bugbear system. In RQ, you take every race one at a time, accepting it as unique in and of itself, and each is able to generate opponents that will take the head off of your Sword of Humakt bad-assed Hero if he's lucky and you're not. Think I'm wrong? Have a trollkin or baboon throw a javelin at you [1d10+half dmg bonus], get an impale result, and hit you in the head. That's an average of 6pts of damage, doubled to 12 pts. for the Special result. No matter what result you roll in a d20 game the average tribe-goblin will never get an instant kill the way it can happen in d100. Remember, in every RuneQuest fight you have a minimun 5% chance of dying outright no matter how badass you are. There is no such thing as a 'warm up fight'. Even if a given race is ill favored in this statistic or that aspect, there's always a chance they'll kill you.

Well, I think even a human can see the 'charisma' of a Uzuz Matriarch even if he's repulsed by almost everything else about her. I mean, to take an extreme example, look at Adolf Hitler. He wasn't handsome, quite a bit of what he said is very ugly, and even his speaking style was overwrought. When he started out, he was so poor a public speaker that he had to take classical rhetoric lessons. I've watched a fair number of his speeches in their entirety as a military historian and what cannot be denied about the man is that had a certain magnetism, that indefinable 'something' that drew people to him. Reagan, Thatcher, Bill Clinton, all those had that same quality as politicians. You don't have to like them, I certainly don't, but identifying their ability isn't 'liking' them. Getting more Glorantha-specific here, it may simply be that some races are ill-favored and lack that magnetic personality trait in the genome. If we can accept enlo [trollkin], newtlings, baboons, etc. are lacking certain traits [intelligence, willpower, whatever], it's not unreasonable to think that broo and tusk riders lack the magnetism and leadership ability for what the 3d6's call 'Charisma'. And if you want to change that at your table, have at it. YGMV and all that.

Chaosium Scotty: Duck Wrangler 😁

I appreciate the replies, guys. Thank you. With some of my commentary about several subjects, I'd wondered if I'd let real history intrude too much into the Arthurian Mythos. I tend to gravitate towards the grittier end of the spectrum when I'm dealing with High Medieval /Courtly Love settings... More 'Lion in Winter' than 'Romeo and Juliet'. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the idealization of one's lady love, my wife and my ex-wife both will tell you otherwise. I just prefer it to be more human and less mythic. I am however constrained to stipulate that if Julia Ormond looked at me with those eyes in the otherwise hugely forgettable 'First Knight', I wouldn't happily commit the atrocity of her choice and probably wonder why everyone else was mad.... 🤣

Uh... because they are half troll, half pig and tend to take after the latter. I understand that 'charisma' takes into account more aspects than just attractiveness and an inspiring personality to a Tusker is going to be different than that of a Sartarite. But the basic behavior favored by the race and their leadership techniques tends to degrade their CHA stat. Now, that doesn't mean you can't custom design your own Tusk Rider super-boss. A highly charismatic and magically powerful Tusk Rider chieftain could seriously upend the balance of power in the Dragon Pass region. Tuskers are a pain the fundament now, but if they ever got really organized they could be terrifying. Think 'Ralzakark of Dorastor' with cavalry. That could be a Very Bad Thing that might require some real thrillin' heroics [nod to 'Firefly'] to put right.

I have a habit of playing the oddball character, the strange guy who fits the scenario in unexpected ways. For example, I'm playing in Twilight 2000 4th ed. game right now as a Polish supply sergeant. Part of that is that I'm a US Army veteran and when I play 'modern' games, I like to give the other guys a change to let their inner Rambo out. 😁 But if I were playing a KAP game, I'd almost certainly play a Pagan in Arthur's court. No matter how pious or worldly the other guys were, I'm likely to have an uncontrollable need to play a Pagan Castillian knight named 'Don Roderigo' or something, who's battle cry would be 'Cargo, Caballeros!' [loosely, 'Charge, comrades!'] or some such. I'm just that kind of weirdo... lol! So it's a lot of fun watching your Pagans trying to let their 'Lusty' out while everyone around them is trying to be 'Chaste'.

So, how many medievalists or are students of the Medieval period are there in KAP. I've seen quite a few who play the Harn setting, so I got curious. In the spirit of full disclosure, I was in the SCA in the Pacific Northwest for many years and consider myself reasonably well read-in on the Crusades era.

Thank you. Worth considering.

Thanks. You just saved me $30... 😁

Quick question for you KAP fans out there. Is the 'Sixth Edition' the Version 5.2 listed on drivethru? The covers look the same, but I was dropped on my head as a child so it's best to check 😁

A couple of notes about playing the intrigue game. When it comes to servants, don't threaten, entice. A couple of silver Marks in the right pockets and you could have a pair of ears in every castle you visit. I don't know how KAP handles player wealth but if your 'Winter Campaign' includes wrecking the reputation of a rival while still protecting your own, it's a wise expenditure of capital to buy a pair of ears in several castles in the land. Another thing: DON'T TAKE IT TOO FAR! I can't emphasize that enough. There is fine line but a wide moat between 'taking the arrogant twit down a notch' and 'utterly ruining a man out of unseemly spite'. Know when to stop. Lastly, never EVER admit that you resort, have resorted, or ever will resort to these tactics. They are unchivalrous in the extreme, and being too obvious about it can ruin the reputation of your entire family for generations to come. And that's not hyperbole. History is rife with sons having to atone for the sins their father's fast lip caused the family. And no father will marry his daughter to a 'carpet knight' who can't win glory of his own and so resorts to underhanded tactics. You really, REALLY don't want the Crown to 'augment' your heraldic arms with 'cross in saltaire sable' [a great big black X in the middle of your heraldry] or some other symbol of disrepute... and it is entirely the Crown's prerogative to do so if they've a mind to do so. So don't give them one.

Watch Tyrion Lannister. Memorize everything. 😁 OK, first is the public snubbing. Refuse to greet them, take their hand, or even look at them without a direct order from the host or sovereign. Second, commission several troubadours to sing embarrassing songs about them. If you really want to stick it to the guy, the story has to not only embarrassing, but TRUE. Remember that time the guy fell off his horse on a hunt? Have the harper say that 'as a result, Sir So and So examined the fewments closely'. 'Fewments' are a Medieval term for herbivore dung, whereas 'scat' is dung from carnivores, and both are the 'polite' way to refer to animal shit when discussing a hunt. Third, rumors. Rumors are awesome. Mutter to yourself complaining about your target in front of a stable boy or body servant and it'll be all over the castle by morning, and all over the country by spring. Also remember that your servants are 'agents in place'. They hear everything about everyone and can be an invaluable tool for you. All too many nobles treat cooks and stable hands like they don't exist, so don't make that mistake. Treat your staff well, including pay, and you'll have a fairly good intelligence service at your disposal. Treat them poorly and they're like KGB moles in the CIA. Additionally, take a look at 'Downton Abbey' for some good examples of the Politics of Gossip. Now, be aware that if you open this bag of scat, you're probably going to be splashed with some. Things like this ALWAYS come back to haunt you, most especially if you're talking smack about a royal favorite. And men have been executed for less. So, just like you were told at your first jousting tourney, BE CAREFUL.

Oh, PLEASE.... It needs to be on Queen Leika Ballista.